


Get Back (To Where You Once Belonged) (Excerpt)

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Discord Prompts [9]
Category: Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Nexus (Star Trek)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 12:56:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17488442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Gandalf makes his way back.





	Get Back (To Where You Once Belonged) (Excerpt)

**Author's Note:**

> This excerpt is my submission for the #tolkiendiscordprompt. It works as a stand-alone work and fits the topic of returning from a rest.

It was a classroom, like anywhere in Northern El-Auria.The teacher wrote notes on the board at the front while the pupils wrote it down in their composition books. The teacher’s brown hair matched his jacket, and his eyes matched the blue strip of fabric under his collar.His dark eyebrows were bushy and expressive, and they raised up every time he wanted to make an important point.He wore small spectacles, which were perched precariously on his rather mountainous nose.On the desk, the placard read, Professor Agamir.

 

The class ended with the tinkling chime of a bell.The students emptied out of the classroom, and the teacher sat at his desk.He wrote notes for the next day, and casually began to get ready to leave. He put a gray trench coat on, in preparation for the rainy afternoon, and his large, blue, peaked hat.He grabbed his satchel and made his way to the door.

He was met at the door by an odd, dark-skinned woman, someone from the South, from her headdress and hat.

“Hello,” She said, simply.

“Well, hello,” he answered, cordially.“Can I help you?”

“My name is Guinan,” she said.“And it’s time for you to leave the Nexus.”

“Leave the Nexus?” the Teacher repeated.“I daresay it’s time to leave the classroom for the day.Would you excuse me?”

 

He passed her in the corridor, his footsteps making echoing clomp, clomps.At the end was the outside door, and he exited.

 

•••

 

Gabus had terrorized Northern City for two days.The power had been cut, and the communication lines had been severed.Gabus was a terrorist.He wanted to change the world with one fell swoop and demanded that all recognize him as their leader, without fail.

He hadn’t counted on the Five this time.

 

The Tinkerer raised his hand.“End this now, Gabus!” he demanded. 

The Doctor cocked his head.“He’s altered his genetic structure,” he told the Tinkerer.“He’s made himself bulletproof, and who knows what else.”

“It doesn’t matter,” The Teacher replied, calmly.“No matter what a man does to conceal his fears and insecurities, they are there.”

The Engineer, in his red suit of armor, shook his spike-helmeted head.“Damned right it does not matter!” With a bound, he leaped after Gabus, attempting to grapple the despot.He could not hold him, could not gain traction.

“He has a force-field!” the Tinkerer exclaimed.“Doctor, is it biological in nature?”

The Doctor nodded.“It’s a Biogenic field, yes.”

“Then he is beyond me.Doctor, I need you to strengthen it.Allow nothing to pass through his field.Nothing.”

At that moment, the Ecologist strode to the other four.He boasted.“The Vines have ensnared all of his Terror-bots.They will no longer bother us!”

The Teacher looked with concern at the Tinkerer.“Are you sure this is wise?” He asked the Tinkerer.The Tinkerer wore a white outfit, with a pentagonal symbol on the chest.His hair was black, with white streaks at the temple. 

“Turn his conceit against him,” the Tinkerer explained.“The Doctor will not allow anything to permeate his field, not even fresh air.”

Gabus was, even now, on his knees, gasping for air.“Please, mercy!” he gasped.

“Mercy?You showed no mercy when you destroyed the Markur building with three hundred innocent souls within.Where was your mercy?”The Tinkerer looked at Gabus coldly.

“Doctor, that will do,” The Teacher finally said. 

The Doctor released, reluctantly, and Gabus slumped to the floor, unconscious.

The Tinkerer looked at him, a vaguely crazed look in his eye.“Why?”

“Many that do not deserve death are killed.Many that do, do not.Would you yourself balance the scales?”

 

Behind the Teacher, a voice chimed in, “This won’t be the first time you defeat Gabus.”

The Teacher turned, and found the Guinan woman again.“No, it wouldn’t.Gabus would bother Northern City for a number of years. I know you.”He said, looking at her.

 

•••

 

San Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century.There was yet no Golden Gate Bridge connecting Land’s End and Vista Point.Guinan left with her escort, wearing a gray suit with a blue necktie.His beard was now gray, his eyebrows now snowcaps.“Your father sent me to retrieve you from Earth,” He recalled, walking down the stairs of a public hall.“He wanted you to stay home for a time.He feels space is unsafe.”

“He thought I was too young to go abroad,” Guinan recalled.“But he was a relatively young father himself, so I thought him a hypocrite, and left anyway.”

“You weren’t like the rest of your family,” He noted.“Well, there was your uncle Terkim.But the rest was always so serious, especially your grandfather.”

“My grandfather was always a crusader. It made him rather pessimistic on human nature.It also isolated him within your Order.”

He grunted, and the two were soon on the trolley.

“The thing about being a race of listeners,” Guinan noted, “Is that it makes conversations terribly drawn-out.”

 

•••

 

El-Auria.Fifteen Cubes in the sky, carving up the planet like a roast beast.He rose above, into the sky, his body crackling with energy Four other points of energy rose as well, attempting to hold at bay the relentless, irresistible force that was the Borg.

The man, once called the Tinkerer, now known, in turns as Curunir, and as Saruman, tore the outer surface of a cube apart with a gesture.Gomphor, the once-Engineer, Rode his Sky-Runner into the Fray, tearing a cube apart with an antiproton beam.Yet another cube lay inert, its biological components melted by Golruffe Kakare, the Doctor.And this man, the Grey Wanderer, known as Mr. Grey, Mithrandir, Tharkûn, Storm Crow—Gandalf—Did what he could.

 

•••

 

The Lakul.The long trip back.And Guinan sat next to him and softly said.“That couldn’t have been pleasant.Strange, though.Most people in the Nexus do their best to rewrite, idealize history.”

“It is a disservice to change what is,” Gandalf answered.“Though, I keep wondering, whether I could have done better, could have changed something in my life, and the answer comes back—I like my life.If you change one thing, nothing looks as good.”

“Do you know what’s happened?” Guinan asked.“Outside the Nexus.”

 

•••

 

“I am a Servant of the Secret Fire,” Gandalf roared up at the Balrog, “Wielder of the Flame of Anor.”

 

The Bridge of Khazad-dûm.Gandalf’s Last Stand.“The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!”

 

Guinan looked on, as members of the Company moved around her, oblivious to her presence.“NO!” Frodo screamed, as Gandalf fell into the abyss.

 

•••

 

The peak of Zirak-zigil.Gandalf lay in the snow.He breathed a final breath, and closed his eyes.

 

White Noise.

 

•••

 

Gandalf stood before Olorin, his Maia sponsor, who he had come to know as his spiritual partner.

“We cannot stop,” Olorin told him.“We must defeat Sauron.You are not yet defeated.”

“But I am so tired,” Gandalf explained. 

“Don’t worry.We will give you new strength,” Olorin told him.

 

Guinan stood before him.“Are you ready to go?”

Gandalf looked at her and nodded.“Come with me.You would be a great help to me.”

“I’m already out there,” Guinan demurred.“It’s time to go.”


End file.
